A typical household refrigeration apparatus comprises a refrigerator compartment and a freezer compartment. The freezer compartment often includes an automatic ice making apparatus. For convenience, such refrigeration apparatus may include a through-the-door ice dispensing apparatus which can provide for the dispensing of both whole, or cubed, ice or crushed ice. The term "cubed ice" can refer to crescent-shaped ice bodies as well as any other shape. It is not crushed or otherwise broken up into small irregular shaped pieces.
Usually, a through-the-door ice dispensing apparatus is provided in a side-by-side refrigeration apparatus. An ice container assembly in the freezer compartment has a container for storing ice cubes and means for conveying ice cubes from the container to a downwardly facing discharge opening. The ice dispensing apparatus includes a chute providing a passageway through the door which opens into a dispenser opening for delivering ice when an ice lever is actuated to request delivery of ice cubes or crushed ice.
In addition to side-by-side refrigeration apparatus, there is a desire to provide automatic through-the-door dispensing in a top mount refrigeration apparatus, i.e., a refrigerator/freezer having a freezer compartment above a fresh food compartment separated by a separator wall. However, the freezer compartment is generally not of sufficient height whereby an ice container assembly could be mounted relative to a dispensing apparatus in the freezer door for dispensing of ice. Moreover, the height of the freezer door is higher than desirable for positioning an ice dispensing apparatus.
To include a through-the-door ice dispensing apparatus in a top mount refrigerator, it is therefore desirable to provide the dispenser housing in the fresh food compartment door. Doing so requires that a passage be provided through the separator wall for delivering ice bodies from the ice container assembly to the dispensing apparatus. Doing so is problematic, as it is necessary to prevent flow of air between the freezer compartment and fresh food compartment.
In including a through-the-door ice dispensing apparatus in a fresh food compartment, a desire has been expressed to have the same mounted at the right side of the door. However, most conventional ice making apparatus are designed to be mounted on the left side wall of the freezer compartment. For economies of scale, it is advantageous to mount all ice making apparatus in the same orientation, rather than providing distinct ice making apparatus for left side mounting or right side mounting.
Finally, with side-by-side refrigeration apparatus, the ice container assembly is typically mounted to the side wall of the freezer compartment. With a top mount refrigerator, it is desirable that the ice container assembly be mounted and supported on the bottom wall of the freezer compartment, i.e., the top surface of the separator wall, which also serves as a shelf for storing food items.
The present invention is intended to overcome one or more of the problems discussed above.